[Surgical resection for sternal metastasis from gastric cancer; report of a case]

A 72-year-old woman underwent a distal gastrectomy for gastric cancer 8 years ago. Histopathological examination showed poor differentiated adenocarcinoma. She had no symptom but chest computed tomography (CT) revealed tumor at sternum. A percutaneous needle biopsy under CT was performed and showed poor differentiated adenocarcinoma. Therefore, extirpation was performed. The tumor was located in sternum and left 2nd rib and thought to invade greater pectoral muscle and left lung. The tumor was resected at sufficient margin with surrounding tissues. Compared with tissue of gastric cancer for histopathological examination, sternal tumor had homeomorphous formation and was diagnosed sternal metastasis from gastric cancer. Sternal metastasis from gastric cancer is a rare disease and standard therapy is controversial. In this case, no findings of reccurrence have been found for 8 months after the operation.